ISAAC VAN DEN AKER - PROMISE ME SOMETHING SILVER

The Promise of Something Silver presents a strange scene where mundane objects transform and shift their definitions. Eight technological entities behave in their own ways—oscillating, flickering, and spiraling in an unstable dialogue with each other and the self. Phones wander in thought, desktop computers endlessly loop and collide, and a power strip generates its own current. Energy emerges from unclear sources, unlocking kinetic and poetic potentials. With every shift in perspective, the scene transforms, reflecting on the broken promises of technological progress—not by fulfilling them, but by staying with what’s already there, where something grey might turn silver.

Isaac van den Aker is a recently graduated artist from ArtEZ Arnhem (DAT) and works across sound, video, code and installation, synthesising them into systems where technology, perception, and materials interact in unstable ways. By misusing tools and removing their function, he allows poetic and kinetic qualities to emerge. Working with mundane technologies and found materials, his work takes shape in intermediary states. Attempting to understand his surroundings, he wonders how virtual environments become physical, animate our everyday life and alter our perception.

This work was selected as part of Youngbloods, GOGBOT’s platform highlighting promising recent graduates.